Shinji's Solution ed2
by Despite
Summary: Post 3I, what if Shinji become more than his mightiest moments aboard Unit 01? ed2 Fixed the sectioning removed by the HTML converter, I suspect


I do not own the characters of Neon Genesis Evangelion, nor any other aspects of it. Quite the opposite - sometimes they seem to own me as they frolick in my mind. sigh, what is one to do with one's own mind, after all? Just nod and smile... 

This is my first attempt at a fan-fiction.

They say, 'Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes.  
That way, when you criticise them you're a mile away,  
and you have their shoes'

This is my first mile-walk. Reviews and criticism of a constructive (not necessarily nice) nature are very welcome.

---

Shinji's Solution - OneShot

Shinji's grin took over his features as he looked hawkishly on. The ashes of Nerv sat birthing the phoenix of Gehirn, the archived remnants dredged from Shinji's ancestry and made to live again.

'What is there to do?' the Third Child had asked himself as he stood up at the end of the World. Asuka was there, of course, but how much did it matter when she was as mentally spent as himself, broken physically as well?

Shinji had known he didn't want her with him where he was going. He had still cared enough for that.

He stepped over to one of the stations and kept a repectable distance between himself and the young technician sitting at the MAGI point. Truth to tell, he was the same age as her, but age seemed to have little to so with seniority, post third-impact.

"Status?" he asked.

She looked over at him. "We've calculated the position to 87. Good enough to proceed, sir."

"Good."

He watched her for a moment as she turned back to her work. He was amused. The girl didn't like him. That's why he'd chosen her (or one of the reasons), and the others he worked with directly. Less risk.

It annoyed Shinji that he'd had to set up a bridge-like command area, similarly to that of Nerv. 'So much for progress' he mused, but he wasn't about to sit idly by like his father had. As much as he saw Nerv's one and only Commander in himself, he intended to do things differently. No command seat graced the deck.

"Okay then," he said, addressing the bridge, "we'll start tomorrow. You can go early if you want, just make sure you're here and ready at 5.30am." he turned on his heel and left.

"Gee thanks, O generous 'Commander'" Came a sotto snort as he left ear-shot.

"The Sabbath was once a day of rest. Look like the High and Mighty have gone back on their work-place policies."

Shinji would chuckle when he heard the replay.

---

Miss Asuka Langely Soyrou grimaced as the cab ignored her hail and sped past, having to jump away to avoid the muddied waters it splashed at her. She noted sourly that her business dress was soiled.

"Ahh, screw you too!" she yelled after it.

At least she didn't have a date tonight, and she could just go home to her appartment and slob. Her rising career in auditing seemed to attract smooth- shaven, mindless jerks (in her opinion) to her like moths to a halo of sunlight. They wanted to taste the real thing, but had no real idea of what it was.

"Ach, I'll take the bus then!" she exclaimed to the next irreverant taxi to pass her by.

Riding the bus, she reflected on things. Groceries to buy, bills to pay, outings with friends, issues at work. The ride was long though, so her mind ambled further. Pilot. Eva. Angels. Misato. Wondergirl.

Shinji.

'Why did he leave,' it almost wasn't a question anymore, just a phrase of intense meaning. The question was so familiar that it held no pain anymore, just solemn wistfulness. She had seen the hope light in his eyes, the joy mingled with uncertain fear.

The two had shared an epiphany as the red sea and sky had faded. Hours in silent commune, watching the Earth reborn and grow the fruits of life again. The answers came unbidden, joy shared, two who were destined.

But he wasnt here anymore.

'Screw you too, Shinji.' she thought whistfully, again.

---

"Maya Ibuki!"

The woman's twisted grin lengthened but did not turn upwards as she saw Shinji again. "Hi Ikari. Long time, no see. Keeping busy, I see."

Shinji allowed himself a small smile. "I..yeah. It took a lot of work to find you."

"And even more to get me to come here. You sure you can live up to...?"

"Yes. It'll be worth it."

"Forgive me if I exercise some skepticism."

They were hardly bosum buddies after all. "Thank you for coming, Ibuki-san."

"Well, someone had to. I know you couldn't get Aoba or Shigeru. Or any other seniors."

Shinji nodded. "To tell the truth, I tried harder for you. You even have some idea of what we're trying to do here. I remembered how you were during the battles, I need someone like you on my side."

She huffed, pushing her fringe up as she exhaled. "Well, isn't that nice. I hope you know what you're up to. If you hadn't been such a sweet kid all those years ago, I'd probably be opposing you."

Shinji let out a dry chuckle. "Trust? Well now that its got you here, abandon it. I won't allow you to become a liability."

"I don't like you so much anymore kid. Let's just do this because we have to."

---

Asuka sipped at her cold coffee, deciding to drink it rather than let it linger. She rubbed the bridge of her nose as she scanned the spreadsheet, searching for a lead.

"Sohryu. Got a moment?"

Asuka frowned, but wasn't about to snap at her boss so easily. Though he was a pretty relaxed man, he wasn't the type you snap at, because he'd take it personally - as in he'd try to find out why you snapped and try to solve your problems for you. Nice, fatherly to his subordinates, but not what Asuka was comfortable with.

Rather than answer, she left her analysis and stood up to enter his office a few meters away.

"What's up?"

The man dropped a manila folder in front of her. "I've got a new case for you."

"But, I'm nearly done with the Xiao case and then I've got the Lake Ltd. brief to sort out. I can't take another one just now."

"Give them to Susanne to sort out, she'll redistribute them. This one's big. Real big. In fact, it's promotion material, for you and me - if it's done right. Which is why I'm giving it to you."

Asuka shook her head gently, "I'm still just an understudy - there's a lot I don't know yet. Give it to someone with more experience. I'm not wondergirl you know."

The man looked up at her, eyes intense. "Shut it, Sohryu. You hide it well, but you're a caged tiger under your reluctant facade. You're not breaking out and biting me, okay?"

He sighed and leaned back in his chair. "You know I headhunted you, an untrained and uninterested kid with emotional problems. This is why. Because you can, and will, do great things. You're fire. Now, pick it up."

Asuka picked up the brief and opened the cover. She read the title on the first page,

G. Hearn Limited Accounting Issues  
Prepared by Barry Nesbit Accounting

"G Hearn? Have I heard of them?"

"Nope, they just formed but here's the thing: they're good at fraud. Beyond good - they were only fingered due to a fluke - some geek was playing with a database fragment while doing some coding, and a student happened to see it and started asking questions. Sheer luck. And,"

He looked Asuka straight in the eye, "They're like Nerv. Scale, methods, the works. They've gotta have MAGI level computing to do this."

Asuka thumbed through the folder, intent on the content.

"Ok, I'll do it. I'll show these smug bastards that they can't just bleed the world's economy for themselves. I'm gonna enjoy this."

"Don't get too cocky - even you'll find this a challenge."

"Vundervar!" she stepped out of his office, her nose still buried in the folder...

---

Nerv had been raised to the ground. Fortunatly for some, this meant that Nerv proper was all but untouched. The proud, attention-seeking pyramid was gone as were the upper and middle sections, where the Evangelion and military zones had been (MAGI removed, naturally), but Gehirn's seedy legacy was untouched. Even the crucifix of Lillith and the Evangelion graveyard remained.

Seele had seen to that.

It was no mystery to the world that Seele had been justly tried and summarily executed for their deeds. No mystery - since a mystery implies knowledge, and all but the burdened few had none. Fuyutski had called upon Shinji's wrath and his own connections, using the boy's great anger to fuel his own ailing sense of justice and drive a mighty pickaxe of subterfuge and terror into the comittee's collective material soul. All favours cashed, no quarter given, no blackmail unsent, the two had summoned willing, desperate forces and spent them in a brief, fiery purge operation.

Shinji had been berserk and disturbed enough to grant Fuyutski's last wish of termination, shooting a 9mm into his head and point blank. He had been angry and ashamed enough to follow the old man's second last and continued to live. And he had been sickened enough to follow his last counsel, a motto that his father had lived by, invented long ago.

"Shinji, understand this. Never let your sense of morals stop you from doing what is right. That is our justification, and that is why I followed your father into the depths of his broken soul."

"Do you expect me to forgive him, because he was doing what he thought he had to in spite of everything?"

"No, why should I? He never did. Doing what is right means living, or dying, with the consequences."

They stood in a cell, a miscellaneous room in the catacombs of Gehirn's original research bunker. The basalt walls, polished to a marbled finish, stood blank and the room empty. Quite possibly, the room had never been used.

"I'm not so foolish to not know that you see me as a grandfather figure, Shinji. But an old man like me needs his rest. I suppose I don't care if this room is my tomb, just as long as no-one remembers my name attached to all this. Or will you destroy this place?"

The manling before him held his left arm in a sling, a nasty wound swelling accross his face as well as many just-healing contusions and raw patches. His clothes were a little worse for wear, the best of many business suits left from their personal war.

"I'll leave it here. We'll bury the past, but someday we'll remember, sometime long after."

Fuyutski wheezed and appreciative chuckle. "That's your mother's spirit."

His wounds were not fatal, but painful. It hurt him to breath from the bullet in his chest, but the old man knew he could have chosen to live quite comfortably in time. Physically, that is.

"You don't have to die. It's over now. Seele, Nerv, gone. We can both rest in peace, and rest alive for a while."

Kouzo's back was turned to the boy when he replied. "No, Ikari. We don't get the luxury of rest. Yui appointed us the wardens of humanity's future. Gendo's gone, so you have to finish it for him. I'm sorry Shinji, but you're not finished yet..."

---

"Damnit! Another blind lead!"

Asuka cursed at her computer, furious. "Acch, fuck it!" she stood up and raged.

"Now Asuka," she told herself, "just relax and think happy thoughts. Computer in a blender. Computer in a blender. Frog in a blender. Baby in a blender. Rei in a blender. Heh heh heh."

Having come down from her high, she chuckled at the thoughts in her head. Not that she found the idea of the former First Child being minced appealing, but rather the very concept was so absurd that it cancelled her anger circuits.

'That was a bad one.' she mused, 'Last time it cost me a fortnight's wages. Stupid keyboards, if they're gonna make them shaped like a bat they shouldn't make them wireless!'

Parkman grinned at her as he walked by, a young man with a nearby desk. "What, no squash practise this time Sohryu?"

She grinned her evilest grin. "Maybe," she said sweetly, "but only if you're volunteering to provide the balls."

Parkman's smile turned sickly as he continued on his way. Asuka smiled to see him flinch as his hot coffee burned him. "Prick." she said quietly. "Not half the man of the half-man I used to live with."

She shook her head to clear the depressing avenue of thought that turned in to. 'Not now...' She closed the email that led to her latest dead-end and paused.

'This is tough. These deception paths, they're huge and there're so many. I could handle a few of them, but I have to think there are hundreds, maybe more. I need more resources...I wonder if...'

"Yo, Boss?"

"What is it Sohryu? If you want to talk to me come into my office, don't just yell like I'm at your beck and call."

"Oh, so I have to get up and visit your little management cage? Fine."

Asuka's fiery banter was tolerated since she made sure everyone understood it was all in fun. Mostly. A girl had to have her devices...

"Ah, my favorite trouble maker. What ridiculous request do you have for me today?"

"Oh, nothing much, just a little favour."

"This'll be good."

"Do we have a MAGI access?"

"Of course we do. Would you like yours on a platinum plate or a leather case to go? Sugar?"

"Humour works better with wit."

"And requests work better with credibility. Who do I look like, Gendo Ikari?"

"No, you don't."

"And how would you know? What do you want MAGI access for?"

"To catch a theif..."

"Lock up your valuables. Fine. There's a freelance MAGI tech who rumour says has access to the original MAGI units. I'll see what I can dig up."

"Hah! The mythical original units! I think we can safely assume this is a con - I know all about the originals and they're not likely to still exist. They were at NERV headquarters, you know."

"Like you'd know that. Anyway, I heard they were relocated to a secret location from the original secret location. So do you want access or not?"

Asuka huffed. "Fine, you chase your little con-artist friend. What's his name?"

"Kensuki, I think."

Asuka frowned. "Aida Kensuke?"

Mahlaw tilted his head. "Could be. Old boyfriend?"

"Pffft, hardly. Got his number?"

"I'll get it for you. Who knew the flame had an old flame. Thought they must've all burned to death."

'You're not far wrong...'

---

'Gah! The Red-Demon returns! Long time no bite. How are you?'

'Ah, Geekboy-Stooge. I thought you guys called me 'Red-Devil'? Anyway, how's the black market these days?'

'WTF? Since when was the good name of Aida Kensuke matched with such low acts?'

'Fine, you came to the right place. Anyway, there's no such thing as a non-black market these days, what there is is decidedly off-white.'

'Save your self-justifications. I've come for information.'

'sigh i told you, we'd contact you the instant we found any information on Shinji.'

'Baka! Just how were you going to do that without any contact details?'

'You don't have any of our contact details; that doesnt mean we don't have yours...'

'Ah, your stupid 'Crusaders' organisation, huh? Did you coerce Hikari to join you in the end?'

'Heh, she's in charge of propaganda in her spare time. BTW this program is secure, and don't even think of trying to log this conversation - I have control of your IP's machine. Not bad for a dumb work terminal.'

'Sleezy, underhanded conman as always.'

'bows at your service. Where did you get my email address, anyway?'

'PraDEEP.'

'Hmm...so much for his trustworthiness. Now, how can I help you Miss Sohryu? Worm to tap into your bosses' machine? Incrimination info on a nasty ex? Photos of Shinji?'

'MAGI access.'

'Hmm, security footage of him in the lockerooms maybe?'

'Thin ice.'

'And you're boiling water, yeah yeah. Relax some okay? You don't want much do you?'

'Can you get it for me?'

'Is this some crusade against NERV? Revenge maybe?'

'Would that make a difference?'

'All the difference in the world. Or what's left of it.'

'ANSWER THE QUESTION!'

'Damn, no need to shout! Well, I've got a contact who can process the odd job for me, can you send me the program?'

'No, on-the-fly programming required. I've got to operate it.'

'Forget it! No can do!'

'Listen you! Just name your price.'

'Ahhh...what's the job?'

'Auditing. Gonna catch some scumbags.'

'Alright...well, I'll let my contact know and see what they think. You may, err, get lucky.'

'Fine, but make it quick wouldya!'

'Yeah yeah your highness. I dont know how Shinji put up with you...'

ReD has signed off.  
K.I.A. has signed off.

---

Shinji slunk into the dark room, tossing his long jacket over the back of an office chair. Without turning on the lights, he found the clasped box on the desk, opening it by touch and took out the contents. He implanted an ampule into unit and pressed it against his arm. It hissed as drugs were hurled into his bloodstream, bypassing his skin altogether.

He sighed as he reclined his seat, closing his eyes. Twenty minutes of bliss was all he allowed himself. The room was sealed, hidden and secure. Shinji Ikari could relax, secure in the knowledge that if anyone could invade, his plans were pointless and he would know the calmness of utter failure.

During the twenty minutes, there was no invasion. The young man's mind wondered aimlessly, musing and allowed a free reign. Asuka, Rei, Mother, Father, Misato, Touji, the weather, TV shows, anything. Anything but SC.

Twenty minutes was up. Shinji lifted his forearm from his brow.

"Lights on." he commanded gently. The room lit up accordingly.

He rubbed his eyes and stood. Before coming in, his shift at Gehirn Command had ended and he had gone to his office to commune with his contacts and oversee the scenario. Now it was time to work.

The lab was through a set of hygiene locks, and Shinji took the clensing as a morning shower. Dressed in his lab coat, he went over to the centre attraction to inspect them.

DESIGNATION: John SOURCES: 2, 7, 13, 01e (v3.84, v1.3, v1.0, v4.2)  
STATUS: Viable (0.27 necrosis)

DESIGNATION: Paul SOURCES: 2, 5, 14, 02e (v3.84, v1.2, v1.6, v1.1)  
STATUS: Viable (0.06 necrosis)

DESIGNATION: George SOURCES: 2, 6, 12, 15, 17 (v3.84, v1.1, v1.3, v1.8)  
STATUS: Viable (0.22 necrosis)

DESIGNATION: Ringo SOURCES: 2, 14, 16, 17, 18 (v3.84, v1.6, v1.6, v1.8, v12.43)  
STATUS: Viable (0.16 necrosis)

He didn't really need four, of course. One would be enough, and frankly four would be an embarrasment of riches when the time came. Still, redundancy was important in risk mitigation. Such caution and planning were his father's gifts. The ability to replicate Project-E technology was his mother's. His last gifts from what family he had owned.

Shinji went to his MAGI terminal and started working. He was on his own with an unprecedented biotechnological experiment on his hands, and problem prediction, detection and solution had become his second full-time job.

'Time for sleep later...' he thought to himself. He had not slept for three years.

---

"Ah, Asuka Langley Sohryu. It's been a long time!"

"Sure has, Ibuki-sensei. So, you've managed to keep the MAGI post-Impact? That's amazing."

"Well, it took some special help...so, what can Mother do for you?"

Asuka went pale. "Wh...what?"

"Oh, sorry - I meant the MAGI of course. I'm sorry about...that!"

"Well, uhm...Mother? Misato said Ritsuko said that sort of thing, but...oh."

Maya nodded. "That's right - I Complemented with her. Look, it's silly to call me 'Ibuki-sensei' after everything. Call me Maya."

"Okay, Maya." Asuka said a little sadly. "Is that why you work with the MAGI? Her remembrance?"

Again, the doctor nodded. "You get it too, right? When you start acting like they did every now and again."

"Yeah - but it only really shows with Misato. I'd already inherited my parent's problems."

Maya sniggered quietly, but Asuka let it go. "Well, did you bring your data? I have a terminal just over here, so give me a look and I'll see what we can do."

Asuka proferred her briefcase, and placed it on a desk at Maya's motion. "Here it is, my trace of some slimy scumbags who're this close to crippling our weakened economy. All fifteen terabytes, all gathered in just eleven days!" Asuka swelled her already ample chest in pride.

"You're using flash-card memory? No wonder you needed the briefcase...I might need an interface to adapt to this. They really came in less than fifty terabytes? Technology's just so fast these days, I guess..." Maya noted as she scrabbled around to decode the data. Asuka felt a bit deflated.

The doctor rumaged through the data at a rate that Asuka couldn't follow. The screen flashed with data until Maya stood up. "Something's up, I'd better check in the next room."

"Sure." Asuka said, still hanging on the back of her seat.

Maya left the room, and jabbed a wall-mounted intercom. "Ikari. Something's come up."

---

S IKARI adorned the wooden nameplate on the desk. Shinji reclined in his seat, phone receiver held against his ear.

"Mr. Antonov, I asked you a question." he stated.

"Ikari-san, I apologise! You must understand, your specified requirements are very high, and the modifications will push the planes outside of their original design limits. I can guarantee no less than eight weeks."

Shinji sighed. "MAGI support and a budget for additional engineers. How long?"

There was a pause as the other end considered. "Perhaps five weeks with the additional resources you describe."

Shinji nodded absently. "Fine. But the quality and specifications are absolute - if they are not met then our business is terminated."

The inferral was understood immediately. "Yes, Ikari-san! We will pledge our best efforts to you!"

The recessed screen on his desk told Shinji that an internal communique from Dr. Ibuki was pending. 'What could that be...?'

"Very well. You will keep me updated as to your progress, Mr. Antonov. Goodbye."

"Yes...!" click

"Dr. Ibuki?"

---

"Asuka!"

"Who the...Shinji! Is that...what the hell are you doing here?"

Asuka shreiked through the bars of the dingy little cell she had been abruptly pushed into by two faceless security men. "You're not with these psychos are you!"

Shinji hesitated for a moment. "Asuka...I never could lie to you...it would be nice if I didn't start now. I'm in control of Gehirn, risen from the ashes of NERV. And you're about to call me insane."

Asuka's eye's narrowed as she backed away from the bars she had seized. "You're...G. Hearn?"

Shinji nodded calmly.

"HAH! So you grew a fucking spine? Pull the other one, wonder-dummy!"

Shinji let a sardonic smile take over his face. Asuka felt something cold in her chest.

"No way...you can't be the one who's swindling us out of our lifeblood..."

"Not you personally. Money's the plaything of small minds. Funny, isn't it? If I say I've got a lot of money, and the MAGI agree, then I do. And money can be turned into resources..."

"And you get something for nothing. So what? What are you doing with it? I thought you hated the Eva's."

Shinji shook his head. "I'm not making Eva's."

"Then what then? What are you doing? I suppose you've really proven you are your father's son, havent you! You abandon me, you manipulate the world, for what Shinji? What's your sick goal! Who are you going to hurt, aside from everyone in general?"

"Why is it," Shinji said, "that I've...automatically become my father?" the voice was level but the tone was poisoned ice.

Silence secured the room as the two stared at each other.

Shinji walked to the cell's door and opened it. Asuka stood up, but Shinji pushed her down harshly. Years of strife during the purge had bulked his body mass, and Asuka was too shocked to really resist. He pressed a collar onto the back of her neck, gently but firmly while holding her down.

"This won't hurt you. I can't explain everything, so it's easier if I show you."

"What, you want to try and coerce me to your perverted view, or do you just want to parade your monstrosities to me and read a monologue? Or maybe show me off to your minions, or..."

Her ranting died off as she realised that Shinji wasn't a little boy anymore. Disturbing images appeared in her mind. The shock and anger was beginning to wear off, she realised. The fear began to soak her muscles and block her mind...

Shinji let her up and led her by a wrist. "No. It's just that words alone won't do it."

Asuka found herself following mindlessly. "But why?" she choked, "Why not just kill me?"

He frowned sadly. "Just what do you think I've become? Anyway, you're one of the few who might actually understand."

Asuka followed him as he walked. "What...?"

"A control collar, a derivative of Eva technology. The MAGI have a partial synch with your mind, and are filtering your nerve control. So, you can only do what the MAGI will let you do."

"Mind control? You sick...bastard!"

"I said I'm not my bloody father, alright? It's not mind control, you're thoughts are untouched. It is control though...although I won't permit you being made to do something you don't want to. You just...can't do the things the MAGI don't want you to."

Asuka said nothing as they passed through several, rather narrow corridors. Unlike the daunting spatiousness of NERV's headquarters, Gehirn was intimate and slightly claustrophobic.

"This is my room. Don't worry, I'm not going to seduce you. Heh, like I ever had a chance at that. This is how we get to my laboratory, and I'll introduce you to my Frankenstein-style monsters."

Asuka peered around, seeing nothing of note. Just one big room with a desk, a reclining seat, lots of books and paperwork and quite a few dust-bunnies. Oh, and a set of glass doors at the other end...

"Aaaih!" she screeched as a blast of hot air surrounded them once the glass room was sealed.

"Uhm...sorry Asuka, I'll just get changed and go ahead, get changed after I'm through. You might want to look away..."

"Uhm...why would I want to look at your scrawny ass...?" she said nervously, looking away as Shinji stooped to remove his trousers. She heard him exit the room.

"Idiot. Damn, I really can't get out, my body won't let me! Stupid MAGI, stop reading my thoughts! Leave my MIND alone, for god's sakes!"

She got changed and went through.

---

"Meet the kids. John, Paul, George and Ringo. They rock."

Asuka frowned as she walked past the benches filled with equipment and tools. Reams of printed paper and glass dishes surrounded her, along with shelves and bottles of chemicals. Textbooks sat open with sections written over and a dull ammonia smell laced with acetic tones soaked the room. Shinji stood by a freeze unit with a glass top. He peered down as she approached.

"They're embryos!" Asuka breathed, staring in morbid fascination at the entities being held within containers in the unit. "Human...Angel?"

Shinji sucked his lip for a moment before replying. "Ummm...mostly Angel."

"Why?" Asuka asked, not looking away from the little beasts.

"Remember Third Impact? Remember coming back, spewed out onto the beach, filled with other people's thoughts? People we loved, but who had died? I chose that."

Shinji sighed, and pulled up a work chair. He pushed the papers off it and sat down.

"I chose against Complementation, where all minds merge into a single entity. I killed off our new form."

Asuka nodded. It was all a bit abstract for her, having been a mere participant in the events described.

"The Angels came and tested us, and we won. We passed the test, and why? Numbers. Lots of little minds gave us a diverse set of sciences. Lots of individuals, lots of will to compete, fight, and live. And resources, a billion people worth of raw economic force. That's how we won, so why would we throw away our strength when we'd won? What did we win? Where to from here?"

Asuka frowned, but didn't interrupt. It was fairly clear to her that the man had been wanting to get all this off of his chest, and until now had never been able to explain himself to anyone. 'Let's hear the whole sick story before we do anything...' she decided.

Shinji looked up, at the ceiling as he continued. "Still, I chose wrong. There were only two choices, and I rejected the bad one. But this is still wrong. Why do we exist? Where are we going? Nowhere! As a race, we're stupid - we've got no direction, we just act in our own interests and randomly move like a big vat of hot sludge! Pointless!"

He was seething now, excited by his own diatribe. He continued,

"So, I created these. They're not alive, their minds have been surpressed before they formed enough to attain souls. They're shells, but they're enough to combine the powers of the Angels with the mind and soul of a human."

Asuka looked up sharply. 'Here it comes...'

"This is the answer, Asuka! Combine a human with the Angels and you have a God!"

"A dictator!" she spat. "Absolute power corrupts, you fiendishly stupid moron! Didn't you learn anything from your father, he was a perfect example of what not to become!"

"No, I learned from his mistakes."

"This is it! You've lost it and you're going to destroy everything! That little wimp Shinji Ikari, looser extroadinair, is going to be the bane and death of the human race! Do you think your mother would be proud? Misato? Her little Shin-chan, the one who committed genocide against the human race!"

Shinji looked at her. "Don't you think you're overreacting? Even for you?"

"Sure, I'm a red-headed demon after all," she sneered.

"What's the best form of government?" he asked, out of the blue.

Disarmed by confusion, she hesitated. "Uhm...democracy?"

"A benevolent dictatorship. Absolute power to someone who wants everyone to flourish."

"Let me guess, martyr Shinji will be our saviour, our shephard? He'll never ever be tempted to abuse his powers and look up girl's skirts."

Shinji grinned. "Now there's an idea. Think Asuka! You're smart. What can a person do if they have an S2 organ? Live forever, fly through the air, zap people with mental waves?"

Asuka's face darkened. "Aside from not feel powerless? Anything."

"That's right, they need nothing, they have everything!"

"Except a reason to behave like a good dictator."

Shinji's voice quietened. "I have a reason."

"Oh sure, this oughtta be good. What is it?"

He smiled softly. "Guilt. Loneliness. I was brought up for this."

"What!"

"I'm willing to do it. I have nothing here, but I don't want to die. So I'll live. I'll be the caretaker. I'll direct the human race, maybe try to end poverty and reach for the stars. Maybe we can find Alien life forms, and never be alone. Maybe we can be worth something, not just another microbe living like a moss on this world."

Asuka just took her head in her hands, and shook.

Shinji smiled down at the floor. "This is my answer. This is my solution."

---

"Are you just going to let her wander around like that?"

"What harm can she do? Besides, she might still come around."

"Even I don't know what your plan is, but you think she's going to support it? C'mon, it's hardly like you two share a rapport - even as housemates you were at odds."

"The Porcupine's dilemma."

"Oh yes, that was Sempai's explanation wasn't it? Well, you're the boss, I suppose..."

"Maya. Do I...uh...seem like my father?"

"Do you really want to know, or do you want me to say no? Or to say yes, maybe?"

"It's...never mind."

"How about the unvarnished truth? You're as ruthless and commanding as the Commander, but you're a much better person. Even if you have about as many friends. Oh, and your staff don't like you, but they don't despise you or fear you...all the time."

"Thanks, Maya. Anyway, whats the status on the thruster control system?"

"The on-board computer is performing well in simulations and has passed 87 of the independance tests. I know that's not good enough yet, but it's close enough for now. We think another layer of ionically-active carbon weave should do the trick."

"That's good. For a while it was looking like a manned mission was necessary."

"You don't have to, you know...you can act like your father a bit sometimes."

"What?"

"Normally, you'd just say 'Excellent' and not try to justify yourself. She's gotten to you, has she?"

"It's not everyday that the past haunting you lives and breaths before you."

---

"Saito. Weaver." Maya called imperiously to the command deck.

"Ma'am?" they queried, looking up from their stations.

"You've cleaned it up?"

"Yes - her workplace has been informed that Miss. Sohryu requested leave to spend time with an old acquaintance after submitting her report. The report is mildly implicative of the Marduck Fast-food and Pet-food empire. We dug up some dirt on them to make it stick." the black-haired Saito replied, putting his coffee onto the desk as he spoke.

"Good. Where is she?"

"Looking over the containment area." the strawberry blonde man answered. "With a fine tooth- comb. Is she expecting to find a weakness in the collar?"

"She's smart and resourceful - who knows, she might outwit us."

"Whatever, ma'am."

Maya went to find the younger woman, who was inspecting the concrete join within the cavernous shed that was the containment area.

"Asuka. Maybe you should do QC inspections for Shinji, even he would find your attention to detail sufficient."

"The Germans invented quality. Which is not something I'd dignify this oversized PE hall with the seal of. What do you want, Miss Ibuki?"

The scientist crossed her arms and nodded in amusement. "No need to be so stand-offish. At least you have some idea of what this whole thing is about."

"Shinji didn't tell you?"

"No, he's so secretive that even with the MAGI pickups I'm not 100 certain of what he's up to."

"So why are you going along with him? Is he a good fuck, or what?"

"Hmph, you really do think he's his dad, don't you? I wish I knew - a man with that much power, and a sensitive soul to boot...but no, he's not interested."

"Slut."

"Brat. No, I've just heard what he's been through, so I trust him. I owe him that."

"I saw what he went through too - don't you think what I went through was worse?"

Maya grimaced, remembering. "I know you went through a lot, Asuka. But I'm not talking about the war with the Angels."

"What? Did he have to sell himself to buy this monument to insane ambitions?"

"In a way...during the Seele Purge, I remotely assisted him and sub-commander Feyutski."

"The what purge? You mean, Shinji and that old man were a part of that bloody witch-hunt?"

"A part of? No, it was a part of them! I never saw much, but what I did see on enemy surveillance cameras...not even the Eva's scared me that much. They were driven, Asuka. It was like a crusade or something - they absolutely would not allow themselves...they showed themselves no mercy, and gave their opponents less."

"Those two wimps? I know Shinji had a lot of pent-up rage, but the old man?"

"Pah. You know nothing, Asuka. Why did Shinji let you hang around? Maybe an old crush?"

"Who understands a psychopath's humane impulses?"

"Humane? Hmmm..."

---

"Oh, it's you. Odd, that the MAGI would give you access to my quarters."

"Maybe they're doing their best to help me improve your sanity."

"What? By letting you seduce me? I'm not the wimpy little boy I was."

"Would it make any difference?"

"We really have changed, havent we? I've got nothing against romance, and if I was ever to have one, it would have to be you. But...it can only hurt my plans...since you're against them."

"Hmph, just like the perverted baka to assume I'm here to seduce him."

"Then why are you here?"

"Can't I talk to my old friend?"

"Is that what we were? Anyway, are you planning on talking me out of my insane plans?"

"You've thought about this a lot, havent you? Damn..."

"It's not like I just came up with an insane egomaniacal plan and made all this happen. Not even with my unstable mental state."

"I was kinda hoping...it was. A crazy mental thing, I mean. So...I could talk you out of it."

"I know."

"I...shouldn't, right?"

"You can't, but you could try. Painful, pointless...that's not how I think of you. It wouldn't become you, Asuka."

"I guess it might've been more Wondergirl's sort of thing...?"

Shinji grimaced. "Don't. The pain...not healed yet. Probably never."

"She was always special to you, huh? The Invincible Shinji's only weakness."

"She was a reminder of my mother's face...my father's cruelty. You knew she was biologically my sister, right? Well, half...or something."

"Really? No...that seems kinda right though...hmmph."

"Misato was my weakness too...but you were my strength. I realised that when you were in your coma...I lost my strength then. I needed you back. And then...you came back and my strength returned. The strength...to do the things I had to. The strength...to not run away."

"So now you really are going to become invincible, Shinji? Is that your strength? The strength to throw me away again?"

"I don't want to. But I want to make you and everyone else safe...to make sure you have meaning."

They were sitting on the bed by now, next to each other with a respectable distance between their bodies, facing the wall before them as they spoke.

"I have meaning baka. Tell me I have meaning for you."

He leant over and wrapped his arm about her waist. He faced her and touched her cheek.

"You have meaning. But I'm not going to be here...like this. Soon...a few days..."

"Not even for me?"

"No. Especially for you. Specifically for you."

She rested her head on his shoulder, resting her arms across his chest.

"You idiot," she sighed. "Don't forget me, huh?" and hugged him.

He rested his head on hers and smiled sadly ahead. "Are you sure you're not here to seduce me?"

Asuke giggled. "Took you long enough. What self-respecting temptress wouldn't try to make love to a God?"

He grinned ruefully as they looked into each other's eyes once more. And he saw that she was serious.

They both hoped fervently, in the back of their minds, that they would not live to regret their actions through the night.

---

For Asuka, the next few days were like a trance. The world moved in slow motion, but she was powerless as things happened around her. Shinji became a whirlwind, moving with determined velocity to oversee this and accomplish that. The remnants of Nerv grew into the mighty phoenix and the organisation pulsed with activity beyond it's previous incarnation's heyday.

Asuka knew that if anything, Shinji was more determined to fulfill his self-ordained fate since they'd loved each other. She caught his fleeting glance occasionally, as he dashed around in madness. She let those moments stand still as she memorised his face, unsmiling but gentle.

She stopped herself from following him when the sample of the Lance was created, chipped from the sacred object itself with a directed AT-field. She forced herself to sit and wait as the ghastly emenations of angelic sorcery echoed throught the air, outside of Shinji's lab.

Asuka desperately fought her sobbing as she waited through the silence that followed.

Maya walked out, a slight stagger in her step. Her eye's were tired and her arms shakey as she found a seat next to her.

"It's done. It's done, Asuka. I...I'm sorry! Oh gods...I can't believe he...did you know that he...what he...?"

Asuka nodded unsteadily as she absorbed her words.

"May God have mercy on our souls!"

"He will, Maya. Shinji...sama has always been so gentle. He's the kind of God I think we can feel safe with."

Maya nodded, collapsing against the back of her seat.

"The stupid baka will annoy the hell out of his Greek and Egyptian worshippers, though."

---

"Is this a miracle? What are you up to, Shinji?" Asuka murmered to herself as she looked at the pregnancy kit. She'd returned to her apartment, received a promotion and kept in touch with Maya as the Gehirn/Nerv organisation was turned to humanitarian technology support research under her command. Maya had offered her a position, and Asuka was taking her time to think about the move. She wondered if she could live with the constant reminders.

"Aargh, stupid Shinji! This is all your fault as usual! Me, a single mom? You bastard!"

'I could...make it go away if you really want me to..."

Asuka shrieked and covered herself with a towel. "WHAT THE!"

'Asuka, it's me...'

"No, no way! Oh god, I though the voices were all gone, don't come back now! Is this all a dream? Maybe it all never happened, oh god does that mean I'm still insane, am I still in that coma?"

'I...Asuka, I'm going to...appear now. Just relax, okay?'

Asuka staggered back against the dresser as Shinji appeared before her.

"I...hi, Asuka. Long time, no see huh?"

"You..."

"I guess I should have let you know I was okay, but there was so much to do, you know?"

"You idiot!"

"S'me,"

She rushed at him, grabbing him in a desperate hug. "Don't you be an illusion, damn you!"

Shinji smiled gently as he held on to her. "Well, that depends on you definition. But it's me."

"You...you did this on purpose, right?"

"What...? Oh, the pregnancy...well, does hoping count?"

"Why didn't you ask me first?"

"You didn't seem to object at the time...!"

"I...but..."

"What about it? It's not fat, if that's what you're asking." he gazed fondly around at her posterior.

"Shut up you! Anyway, just what...are you now?"

"Uhm...angelic? Didn't I explain all this to you?"

"So you're like...a god, but you're here in front of me?"

"I'm like Superman, I can appear as a mild-mannered Eva pilot during business hours."

"Did you Complement with Kaji's wit or something?"

---

"Anyway, how am I gonna explain being a mother with no husband, hmmm?" Asuka narrowed her eyes visciously at the man-god.

"Well, I'm sorry but...wait a minute." Shinji suddenly grinned. "Are you proposing to me!"

"Hardly! But if you need to be reminded of your duties..."

"Hah! Fine, but wait for a more romantic situation...and you'd better believe it will be."

"I expect no less from the future Mr. Sohryu."

"Ikari-Sohryu."

"Fine."

The semi-ephermeral being (part-time basis) allowed himself a moment of whimsey as he watched his soon-to-be fiance realise what she'd put in motion. He knew the demands would start momentarily, but right now he could enjoy the irony. 'Who'da thought? The only one who can order a God around is the Devil...?'

fin 


End file.
